


Chasing the White Rabbit

by DizzyDrea



Category: WandaVision (TV)
Genre: Companionable Snark, Conversations, Gen, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29268801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: She can hear his mutteredoybehind her, but he's still following, so she's not worried. She has a new mystery to solve, and apparently Jimmy likes mysteries just as much as she does.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 59





	Chasing the White Rabbit

**Author's Note:**

> So, here we go again. Yet another new fandom. I really wasn't going to write for this show, but I couldn't stop hearing Darcy and Jimmy's back-and-forth in my head. I suppose I should also point out that this is, yet again, genfic from me, but at this point I think I'm not surprised anymore when it just pops out. 
> 
> Spoilers for _WandaVision_ episode 1.5, _"On A Very Special Episode..."_
> 
> Disclaimer: WandaVision and all its particulars belong to Marvel Studios, Jac Shaeffer and a lot of other people who aren't me. I'm doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

"So, did you get Blipped?"

Darcy Lewis looks up from her bowl of instant Ramen—chopsticks poised with a trail of noodles dripping back into the container—and stares at her lunch companion. Someone has helpfully set up a vintage TV in the breakroom area, channel tuned to the sitcom that is apparently Wanda Maximoff's life, providing a background laugh track to her lunch.

Her automatic response is to get defensive; after all, there's a definite class system at work among those who'd disappeared and those who'd been left behind. Life had gone on in the five years after the Decimation, because the people who hadn't been Blipped had had no choice but to keep going, as terrible as it was. There are a lot of people who'd disappeared who seem to resent that, but that isn't Darcy's problem.

Or her fault, but some people just liked placing blame, so they don't have to face their own issues. She narrows her eyes, wondering if Jimmy Woo is one of those assholes.

Shrugging, she turns back to her noodles and scoops up a big helping, shoving it in her mouth as she thinks about how to answer.

"No," she finally says once she's swallowed. "Had some friends who were. That really sucked, actually."

"Yeah," Jimmy says, letting out a gusty sigh as he pokes at his own less-than-appetizing looking sandwich. "I know what you mean."

"So, how'd you pass the time?" she asks.

In the blink of an eye, he's holding out a business card that he's produced from who knows where. She takes it and reads the contents.

 _Special Agent Jimmy Woo_  
_FBI_  
_New York Field Office_

"So, you spent your time learning how to be a Fed?"

Jimmy chuckles. He plucks the card out of her hand and makes it disappear, then reappear, like magic. "No, I spent my time learning how to make a card appear out of thin air."

"Why?" she asks with a frown. "Seems like an odd way to spend your time."

"A… friend was teaching me how when he… disappeared," he says quietly, glancing away as a ghost of pain Darcy is intimately familiar with drifts over his face. "I guess I did it as a way to keep from forgetting him."

"I get it," she says softly. 

"And you?" he asks. "What did you do? Study astrophysics?"

"No, I started that after—" she cocks her head. "You used to be SHIELD, right?"

"Yeah, right up until the day the agency burned down," he says, nodding as he takes a bite of his sandwich.

"Okay, so you know about Puente Antiguo, right?"

She glances around, keeping her voice low even though no one is around. Most of the folks they've assembled for this little hoedown are former SHIELD personnel that found shelter within new government agencies. It's worked out well enough, considering just how weird the world has gotten in the last fifteen years or so.

"Yeah, I heard about that," he says. "HQ was buzzing with it right after it happened."

"Right," she says. Which makes perfect sense. It's not every day that a god drops in on Earth with no agenda at all. "Anyway, I was Dr. Jane Foster's intern, but at the time I was majoring in PoliSci."

"You do know that's not actual science, right?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, fuck you," she says, waving a hand. " _Of course_ it's not real science. But I was a twenty-year-old college student; what did I know? Anyway, after the thing in New Mexico, I started to get interested in actual science, mostly because it was more interesting than politics, but also because politicians are assholes, and my give-a-fuck's been broken since I was fifteen."

Jimmy throws his head back and laughs. "So, you studied science because you hate politics, huh? Makes sense, in a weird way."

"Yeah, well, after the Decimation, I spent a lot of time trying to understand what the fuck had happened," she says. She shrugs when he gives her a sad sort of look. "What? It was either that or take up knitting. Anyway, I got my PhD out of it, so win-win."

"I get it," he says. "We all had to do something or risk going crazy trying to cope with it all."

"Is that why you joined the FBI?" she asks.

"Eh, it was as good a place as any to land," he says, shrugging as he takes a huge bite of his sandwich. He chews slowly, a contemplative look on his face. When he's swallowed, he says, "At least I had a place to land. There were some former SHIELD agents who struggled to make it. I guess being associated with SHIELD didn't work out for some people."

"You'd think," Darcy says, pointing at him with her chopsticks, "that with half the world's population simply disappearing, that they'd be less particular about who they hire. I mean, the FBI needed bodies just like every other federal agency. Why be picky?"

"Because we're supposed to be the good guys," Jimmy says. "And we're the highest profile agency in the federal alphabet soup. People have to be able to trust us in order for us to be able to do our jobs. It's a little hard to trust people when you know they were working beside Hydra agents for who knows how many years."

Darcy glances over at the TV, watching the loop of Wanda's 80s sitcom, and god does that bring back some memories for her. She still doesn't get what that's all about, the whole TV-sitcom-as-your-life thing.

"You ever wonder why sitcoms?" Jimmy asks as if he's reading her mind.

She looks at him, one eyebrow raised. "Well yeah, of course. It's part of my job, apparently, to wonder about that."

"Got any answers?" he asks just before he takes another enormous bite. 

She wrinkles her nose, because that sandwich looks terrible—all wilted lettuce and limp lunchmeat on soggy bread—and yet Jimmy appears to be enjoying it. At least the chips peaking out of the bag at his elbow look fresh, though she can't help but wonder when they installed the vending machine they came out of.

"So?" he asks. He shoves a chip in his mouth and crunches away, waiting for her to lay some wisdom on him.

She sighs. "Okay, so here's the thing." 

She sets aside the bowl of noodles, resigned to not finishing them. They're soggy and cold anyway, so it's no great loss. Instead, she reaches over and tugs at a chip. Jimmy doesn't miss a beat, just turns the bag in a silent invitation to share. She pops one in her mouth and contemplates what she wants to say as she chews.

"So, Wanda's from Sokovia, right?" At Jimmy's nod, she goes on. "So, how'd she even know about these shows?"

"Cable TV?" he offers.

"Right, because they get Nick at Night in Sokovia," she says, rolling her eyes. "Seriously, she grew up in an Eastern European country that's not exactly known for its human rights. We know that she and her brother participated in anti-government protests as teenagers, so obviously they grew up under a repressive regime."

"So, not likely that she'd ever seen these shows growing up," he says. He gets up and walks over to the fridge, pulling out two cans of soda, handing one to her as he sits back down. "What about as an adult? Couldn't she have watched them once she'd left Sokovia?"

"Maybe," she says, leaning back. She cracks open the soda and takes a long pull. "But I highly doubt it. After that whole clusterfuck with Ultron, Wanda joined the Avengers, and we all know how that worked out. I mean, It's possible she watched some of those shows when she was on the run with Vision and Captain America, but I just don't know."

"So, what you're saying is… what are you saying, exactly?"

"I don't know if I'm saying anything at all right now." She shrugs. "It's just… Her accent, for one."

"Her accent," he says. 

"Yeah, her _accent_ ," she says. "When she walked out of the Hex and confronted us, she was speaking in her natural Sokovian accent." She waves at the TV on the other side of the room. "Obviously, she doesn't have an accent in sitcom-land."

Jimmy turns around and looks at the TV, a contemplative look on his face. When he turns back, she can tell he's confused.

"But, wouldn't that be evidence suggesting she knows what's going on and is trying to fit in with the sitcom world she's created?" he asks.

"Maybe," Darcy says, shrugging again. "But what if she's being manipulated, too? She seemed intent on keeping us out of the Hex, but she looked more panicked than anything during that confrontation. At least, to me she did. And then there's Pietro."

"Her brother," he says. "What about him?"

"Well, for starters, that's not really her brother."

"Wait, it's not?" he asks, startled.

"No," she says, shaking her head. "I mean, she did have a brother named Pietro, but whoever that guy is that showed up at her house today, it’s not the brother I've seen in the SWORD debrief materials. So, who is he? And why did Wanda look so confused? If this is truly her construct, how was she surprised by a guy claiming to be her brother showing up on her doorstep?"

"So, maybe she's not running the show," he says. His eyes drift away, and he tilts his head a little. "Maybe someone's built this little world for her, convinced her it's real, and is making all her wishes come true. Vision is still alive, they're living the perfect sitcom life with two kids and a dog, and her brother's come for a visit."

"Sounds great," she says. "But why? Why do it?"

"Why do what?"

"Any of it," she says. "What's the point? If someone else really is running the show, what are they getting out of it?"

"Good question," he says, tipping his soda can at her. "Better question: is whoever it is running this show inside the Hex or outside?"

Darcy sits up, startled. "Of course, that's it! You're a genius, Jimmy, and that's not the potato chips talking."

"Okay, I'm a genius," he says, as if it's his due. "What'd I say?"

"The broadcast signal," she says, leaning forward. She's practically vibrating with excitement. How had she not thought of it sooner? 

"What about—wait, _why is there_ a broadcast signal?" he asks, leaning forward as he catches on to her train of thought. "If whoever is doing this is inside the Hex, why broadcast outside the zone?"

"Exactly," she says. "There's no reason for the broadcast signal at all unless someone's watching from a distance."

"But do you think whoever it is could still be manipulating Wanda from outside the Hex?" he asks. "I mean, we can barely get a signal though the barrier, apart from the broadcast."

"Only one way to find out," she says, bouncing up out of her seat.

Jimmy stands up a bit more slowly. "Scan the area and look for other signals? What if it's something we haven't encountered before?"

"Won't know until we try," Darcy says, shrugging. She turns and heads for her station, intent on her new task. She stops short, turning around and pointing at Jimmy. "And for the record, _this_ is why I switched majors."

"More interesting problems is why you switched from political science to astrophysics?"

She smiles at him. "The chance to change the world, Jimmy. Think about what we know today that we didn't know ten years ago. Now, imagine what we'll know tomorrow, or in ten years."

"It's like chasing the White Rabbit," Jimmy says. "Addictive and potentially dangerous."

"I'm not planning on blowing up the planet," she says with a wink. "Today, anyway."

She can hear his muttered _oy_ behind her, but he's still following, so she's not worried. She has a new mystery to solve, and apparently Jimmy likes mysteries just as much as she does. 

~Finis

**Author's Note:**

> ETA: 
> 
> Full disclosure: the line near the end... "imagine what you'll know tomorrow" actually came from _Men in Black_ I forgot to mention that, just in case you find it familiar or think _I'm_ the genius. /grins/


End file.
